Inside Gachagua's twin fight to save career, businesses

As the countdown to what appears to be Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s political zero game, it appears the former Mathira MP has scaled down all public engagements to gather arsenal for the fight for his life.

The beleaguered Gachagua has not been in public space since Tuesday, when 282 MPs approved his impeachment.

The Standard has learnt that he has taken a tactical retreat to build up a case to save his political career and his business empire.

According to his allies, Gachagua will not be attending any public event as he has directed all his efforts to gather materials and evidence to discredit the impeachment motion which, if approved by the Senate, may confine him to obscurity.

This could spell doom to his political career and his freedom as the State may use the same grounds of impeachment to file cases against him to keep him busy from the public forums where he has continued to amass influence.

Two-pronged strategy

The insiders in Gachagua’s camp disclosed that the anticipated defense is two-pronged.

The first is the political strategy to counter the impeachment motion at the Senate, so that when he appears before the upper house on Wednesday and Thursday next week, his team may deconstruct the evidence put forward by the National Assembly.

“The other strategy is the legal way, where his battery of lawyers led by Senior Counsel Paul Muite wants a thorough review of the public participation process and the impeachment procedures which they maintain differ from the President, Deputy President, and governors.

“The Deputy President should have been allowed to respond to the allegations in Parliament before public participation took place. The public’s input sought was premature and infringed on his right to defend himself before Kenyans made their judgment,” Muite noted.

The legal strategy, sources intimate, is a fallback plan should the Senate uphold the decision of the National Assembly to send Gachagua packing.

“We are planning because should the Senate uphold the decision, there may be little time to go back to the drawing board to strategise. But the team is also prepared to face the Senate and defend Gachagua on all the 11 grounds that have been raised to support his removal from office,” a source said.

At the Senate, Gachagua’s allies said the second in command will concentrate on defending himself on the charge of using the shareholding concept to create national division which depicted him as a tribal bigot by disclosing his gentleman’s agreement with his boss, the President, in the distribution of appointive positions in government.

“Gachagua will table a list of appointees from the Rift Valley and Mt Kenya region, which he will rely on to justify the gentleman’s agreement between him and Ruto before the 2022 general election. The appointments range from chairpersons of the board of directors of government parastatals, principal secretaries, ambassadors and Cabinet Secretaries,” a source added.

Government of shareholders

The DP will take time in the Senate to explain how he severed ties with his boss after he did not keep his part of the bargain, especially on the appointments.

“He will explain how it has always been a reality for any presidential candidate to promise goodies and appointments in every region to attract the electorate. He will adduce videos of the President committing to implement his promises. He too shall have other graphic materials of the President speaking to the electorate in Mt Kenya region explaining how he implemented his shareholding pledge to them,” the source said.

Gachagua will also explain to the Senate why he should not carry the blame for shareholding as he will persuade senators that although he may have made the remarks, the architect who implemented the same was the President.

In his defense at the National Assembly, Gachagua used the Kenya Kwanza coalition agreement to explain that his remarks were informed by the power-sharing covenants which were founded on law and lessons learned from ‘the well-known’ disputed 2002 NARC power-sharing agreement.

“Furthermore, power-sharing agreements are a feature of government formation in all democracies in the world that provide for the formation of coalitions,” he said.

The DP submitted the agreements of the parties; UDA, ANC, Ford Kenya, PAA, Farmers Party, Chama Cha Kazi, Communist Party, Economic Freedom Party, The Service Party, Tujibebe Wakenya Party, Umoja Na Maendeleo Party of Kenya, and the Democratic Party of Party detailing what each party was to get after the coalition won the 2022 general elections.

 “The power-sharing agreement stated that the President would guarantee the stature, dignity and financial and operational autonomy of the Office of the Deputy President and that the Office of the Deputy President would be allocated specific duties identified at Article 21 (e) of the agreement. ANC would be allocated the position of Prime Cabinet Secretary, while Ford Kenya would be allocated the position of Speaker of the National Assembly,” Gachagua said.